Darren Star and HBO Team for Anita Bryant Biopic

Sex and the City creator Darren Star is set to direct a biopic for HBO about former beauty queen, singer and celebrity pitchwoman Anita Bryant, known mostly for her work as an anti-gay activist.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is being written by Runaway creator Chad Hodge.

"She is a fascinating person on every single level," said Hodge, who has a connection to Bryant -- they both attended Northwestern. "The twists and turns of her life are incredible."

By age 18, Bryant, who was born to a religious Oklahoma family in 1940, had won Arthur Godfrey's talent show and a Miss Oklahoma pageant and finished as second runner-up for Miss America.

In 1959 and '60, she was a major pop star with three million-selling records. After marrying and settling in Florida, she reverted to Christian music and, projecting a wholesome image, began plugging such blue-chip companies as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods and Holiday Inn.

Her most famous celebrity endorsement gig was for the Florida Citrus Commission, for which she sang in a series of TV commercials, closing each ad with the tag line, "A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine."

By the mid-'70s, Bryant was a Christian celebrity. She published several best-selling books and won Good Housekeeping's "Most Admired Woman in America" poll for three consecutive years.

In 1977, she switched to political activism, launching a crusade to repeal a new Miami-Dade County ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

"As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children," she said. Her Save the Children coalition got the new law overturned within a year, and it took 20 years for it to be reinstated.

Celebrating her victory, Bryant promised she would "seek help and change for homosexuals, whose sick and sad values belie the word 'gay,' which they pathetically use to cover their unhappy lives."

She stayed on the anti-gay rights cause with speaking tours and went to California to support the Briggs Initiative in 1978, looking to mandate the firing of gay teachers, which failed. Archive footage with Bryant was featured in the 2008 film "Milk," which chronicled Harvey Milk's campaign against the initiative.

Bryant's outspoken activism led to a nationwide boycott by the gay rights movement.

She eventually lost her Citrus Commission contract, her record and book sales fell sharply, she remarried, tried unsuccessfully to revive her singing career and eventually filed for bankruptcy.

Hodge, who is looking to talk to Bryant about the project, said he is going for a nuanced portrayal of her and "what drove her to do the things that she did."

Although the events in the movie take place decades ago, the social, political and religious divisions in the country nowadays make it feel current, he added.